Manufactured products such as diapers or sanitary pads are usually transported from the site of production to the point of sale in cases, usually designated as secondary packages, containing several of the carton boxes or plastic wraps that are presented to the consumers, the so called primary packages.
Shelf-ready secondary packages are increasingly being used because they allow the supermarket staff to place several products in one movement on the shelf instead of having to place each primary packages separately. Examples of shelf-ready packages are the so called tray-and-hood packages, wherein the primary packages are placed in a tray which can be placed directly on the shelf. A hood is placed within the tray during transport and storage to protect the products, and is normally discarded by the supermarket staff before placing the tray on the shelf. These packages provide an excellent protection for relatively unstable or fragile products, for example hygiene products such as diapers or feminine sanitary products packaged in a carton box or a plastic wrap.
Secondary packages usually have a width larger than 15 cm, especially for absorbent hygiene products such as diapers or feminine sanitary articles. Since many secondary packages are shelf-ready packages, the width of the package is usually the width of the space occupied by the products on the shelf. However shelf space is limited, so it may be a customer (the supermarket) requirement to the manufacturer of the products to provide secondary packages with a smaller width, for example by packing only one row of products in the shelf-depth direction instead of two as may be the case for products having a relatively small width, e.g. feminine sanitary products.
Although secondary packages can be made with a smaller width, these packages are less stable and require a handling (e.g. palletizing) system with higher capacity for the same amount of products. Furthermore it is also desirable that an untrained supermarket staff should be able to easily and intuitively place the products on the shelf without using a cutting implement such as a cutter or knife in order to avoid causing damages to the products or injuries to the staff.